14 Comments
User's avatar
Armand Beede's avatar

Lorinda Birdwhistle: Your "Monkey-Harley", "Natural Love Company," and Tee-Shirt ideas are practical and substitute quite well in comparison with most partners, I would think.

Your tales are brisk and full of practical wisdom.

There is a rhythm to your prose that carries us through and the result in the end is empowering.

Expand full comment
Chris Andrews's avatar

Armand - you are brisk in sending your wonderful comments. I hope you did not click through to NLC website. Your wife might see that in your browsing history. 😳

Expand full comment
sierra echo charlie's avatar

Chris, Another awesome piece! Made me laugh! I also took note of the Repair Tutor and the BBQ links -- I gotta up my game.

Expand full comment
Chris Andrews's avatar

Lol... up your game. Me, too.

Expand full comment
David Holzman's avatar

Well I don't know. I did teach some women to drive stick, as well as my niece and three nephews. And I took my niece for flying lessons starting when she was 7. She thanked me when she reached young adulthood. I also showed her how a tire is changed when she was around 6 or 7. She subsequently had to change a few tires when she got flats in inconvenient places. And once, I came upon a teenaged girl with a flat tire. I stopped, and I told her I could change it for her, which would take around 15 minutes, or I could tell her what to do but let her do it, which would take more like half an hour, maybe a bit more. She chose the latter, and did a good job of it.

The more independent women can be, the better off they are, and often, the safer they are.

Expand full comment
sierra echo charlie's avatar

Right on David! I taught my daughters drive stick to take their drivers test. They weren't very happy about it at the time but now they can do it while their husbands can't lol.

Expand full comment
Chris Andrews's avatar

😂

Expand full comment
David Holzman's avatar

That's great! Makes me happy to hear it! I'm pretty certain I taught my 9 years younger sister to drive stick, and she has a Scion FR-S sports car with a stick, which she's had for well over a decade now, if I remember correctly! In fact, she's probably my most successful stick student. Although I had one stick student, the daughter of close friends of mine, who had a Subaru wagon with a stick for a number of years--a parental hand-me-down, but she eventually married a guy who couldn't drive at all, let alone stick, and wasn't interested enough to try to learn. I just spent a few days with her parents, and I should have asked whether their son in law had learned to drive. I don't see him ever wanting to drive stick.

Expand full comment
sierra echo charlie's avatar

Yeah - it's on par with knowing how to change a tire and remember when it was all about skills? Remember Boy Scout merit badges?

Expand full comment
David Holzman's avatar

I remember about Boy Scout merit badges, and I think I earned a few of them, but the automotive repair skills made a much bigger impression on me. It's 55 years since I took auto shop my last year of high school, but I did tune my own cars until there was nothing to tune anymore, and even after that, I changed the spark plugs on my Civic, and I'll probably keep doing that.

EDIT: and once, a loooooong time ago, when I was only around 40, I came upon what looked like a teenaged girl by the side of the road, with a Mustang that had a flat. I got out of my car, and told her I could change the tire for her, or I could tell her what to do, and let her do it, so that she'd remember if she were ever in this situation again, but it could take well more than 30 minutes for her to do it now, as opposed to around 15 minutes if I did it. She opted to change the tire herself, with my instructions, and I was happy for her, and happy for myself, for having given a young woman some additional independence.

Expand full comment
Chris Andrews's avatar

You’re back! And with more sage advice. Love it 👆🏼

Expand full comment
David Holzman's avatar

Thank you Chris!

Expand full comment
Laura's avatar

Grill lessons with Bobby Flay - yes please!!!

Expand full comment
Chris Andrews's avatar

Right! I just bought a full set of his pans. What is wrong with me?

Expand full comment